Welcome the the Real World
by Sirius Horse Lover
Summary: It's Lily's 7th year at Hogwarts, and she gets an unpleasant taste of the 'real world' when her father becomes deathly ill. The Dark Lord is rising, and if James Potter asks her out one more time she just might scream. But has he changed? LJ SBOC RLOC
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: not mine... 

heh, Don't ask why I'm posting ANOTHER fic... hehe. I actually wrote it a while ago and just found it now laying around somewhere so I typed it. I must have been feeling all emo or something for this first chapter... oh well... r&r I'll be happy, and give you cookies.

* * *

Lily Evans glared at her transfiguration book, biring at a loose hangnail nervously. _How am I going to be able to have this down pat by the time we take our NEWTS?_

"Eww, get that _thing_ off of the table Lily! It's almost dinner time." 

Lily carefully marked her page in her book and closed it as she breathed deeply in an attempt to keep her temper under control. 

"It's a book, Petunia. On the history of transfiguration. I_ could_ teach you--" 

"No way, I don't want to learn about your weird "talents". Help me set the table; Dad's coming home tonight." She put sarcastic air quotes around "talents" and meant '_you_ set they table' by 'help me set the table.' 

Lily pulled out her wand and happiness surged through her; she'd just become of age and now practiced her magic as often as possible. 

"Fine then," Petunia said as she filled a bowl with water for her cat, Resputen. True to his name, the cat was not a pleasant thing at all and only liked Petunia. 

Lily had just finished setting the table and putting a charm on the door that said 'Welcome Home Dad!' in colors that changed from one end of the spectrum to the other when the scraping sound of a key turning in a lock could be heard coming from the general direction of the front door. Lily and Petunia both ran to meet their long-awaited parents and both gasped at the same time at the sight. 

Lily was shocked into speechlessness at the sight but Petunia managed to find her voice, however weakly. "Daddy... what happened?" 

For their father was not the proud dark haired man they both remembered. The first thing Lily had noticed was that he was hunched into a wheel chair and all of his healthy brown hair was gone. Next she noticed that he was frightfully pale and thin. 

"Lily, please help your father get up these few steps and into the house. Then there's something we need to speak to you girls about." 

With an odd sense of detatchment, Lily pulled her wand from her pocket and in moments she'd gotten the wheelchair into the house and they were all gathered in the living room. 

"What happened?" Petunia aked, looking to be on the verge of tears. 

Lily attempted to aske something but her voice wasn't working for some reason. The girls' parents looked at one another and Mrs. Evans put her hand on her husband's. 

"We had hoped that it wouldn't be neccessary to inform you girls of the situation. Unfortunately, though, it has not improved, but declined and we feel we've made a mistake in not telling you two sooner... It came on so quickly and..." She trailed off, close to tears herself. 

"What?" Asked Lily numbly. 

Their father spoke for the first time, and the sound that left his lips wasn't his own cheerfully good-natured voice, but a weary and cracking sound, as though he had aged several years over his leave. 

"I have been diagnosed with bone cancer. They wanted to keep me at the hospital and possibly extend my life for a few months, but I told them I'd much rather stay with my two beautiful daughters and their wonderful mother." His once brilliant green eyes now held a dull greyish tint and he failed at his attempt to smile, only managing to barely lift the corners of his mouth. Lily turned to her sister in disbelief but was met by a pained expression. In moments, it turned contemplative, and she finally spoke again. 

"But wait-- Lily's a witch... she can cure cancer... can't you?" The last part she directed at Lily with a despairing amount of hopelessness lacing her voice. Lily stared for a second, racking her brain for any possibilities before shaking her head solemnly when she remembered something she had read in a school tex book. 

"Many muggle diseases, such as HIV, cancer and similar diseases (see page 653, Aids and the Black Plague: A Geneological Correlation) are ineffectual to Wizard Kind and there have been only a very few cases among magical beings. Therefore, no further research has been done in finding cures for such diseases..." 

"Witches and Wizards are immune to cancer so there's no magical cure... I'm--I'm so sorry..." Unable to contain her grief, she ran blindly to her room and jumped on to her bed. Burying her head in her pillow, she cried, body wrenching with every sob. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Not mine. All JKR's.

Finally, an update!

* * *

Lily, Petunia and their mother would only have a few more short weeks to enjoy with Mr. Evans, but he made sure they were the very best. He made it a point to never complain nor to mention his maladies whenever it could be managed, and mantained good spirits until the very end. Lily attempted every spell under the sun to make his life more comfortable, and when he finally did pass on, it was presumeably peacefully in his sleep (though this fact did little to soothe Lily in her guilt over his death.)

Though Petunia had been jealous of Lily ever since she was accepted to Hogwarts, she now began to hate her sister with a fiery passion. In her eyes it was Lily's fault for not saving their father, and she made it very clear that was how she felt. As a result of this, Lily felt an even greater guilt on top of her grief, and so she and her sister drifted even farther apart.

Petunia drove herself to the funeral, leaving Lily to drive her mother-- who was even more distraught than her children, if that was possible.

"Oh, Lily, how is this all happening to our family? We were so happy. I loved him so much, you know, and he loved us-- all of us. Do you know how proud he was of you? With your magic, and how smart you teachers say you are! Oh, he would say, 'Did you hear what Lily did in school!' And of course he bragged about Petunia, too-- We just have two beautiful, perfect daughters. Why did this happen?" Lily let her babble as they approached the cemetary. Her mother burst into sobs again as they parked, and Lily wiped her own eyes. her mother had always been a pillar of strength to her, and to see her like this was a most terrible feeling.

The days passed slowly before Lily returned to Hogwarts. Her mother was simply not the same and would oftentimes burst into tears, usually saying "I miss the way things were," or, "I really wish you and Petunia would speak! Sisters should be close!"

As terrible as Lily felt leaving her mother in such a right state, it was a sort of relief to return to Hogwarts. She missed the comfort and safety she had always found within its walls and couldn't wait to see her friends. She also had the most unreasonable idea that once she was back at hogwarts, everything would be back to normal. She could pretend that her mother and father were home awaiting her return for christmas holiday. But as she searched for her friends on the train, she was reminded, as it seemed she often was as of late, of the rather dismal fact that this would be her final year at Hogwarts.

She walked through the entire train before finding her friends sitting in the last seats at the end of the train. She smiled, determined to keep the summer's happenings at the back of her mind for the time being at least. She mock glared at Remus Lupin, who'd become a good friend of hers within the last year. "How'd you get here before me?" she asked him, shocked. They had just returned from the Prefect meeting, she'd gotten onto the train so late that she was afraid that she'd miss the meeting if she had taken the time to put her things away.

"Hmm, maybe it's because I knew where the compartment was?" He asked, gray eyes laughing. "I'd thought that you were just behind me, sorry I left." He and her other friends made room for her. Her two other best friends were Alice Miller. She had dark brown hair and brilliant blue eyes. Everyone knew that she very much fancied Frank Longbottom, but she would never admit it.

Sitting on the other side of Alice, was Lily's best friend ever since he first day at Hogwarts. Her name was Christina Mcgann but was normally called Christy or Chrissy. She had dirty blonde hair and honey-brown eyes. She was a very pretty girl but was modest to the point where she would frustrate her friends. She was normally spontaneous to a point of annoyance for Lily, who was more like a Ravenclaw and tended to think out the action and consequences before acting.

Sitting on the seats opposite of them, were Sirius Black and James Potter. Lily Tolerated Black because he was Remus' friend, but Potter- ooh, he got on her nerves! She wouldn't care if he was Remus' brother, she _loathed_ him. At the end of their fifth year, Remus made her be nice to Potter under the condition that he stopped being an egotistical toerag and a player. Lily highly doubted he'd ever stop, but a promise was a promise. She had forgotten about this promise until seeing his detestable face (Potter's, that is.)

"Hello, Lily," Black said sweetly. He was grinning widely, almost maniacally, and his eyes were sparkling with mirth.

"Hello Bla- Sirius," Lily said shortly, he was worrying her with that smile..

"Oh, we must remember Moony's deal with you and Prongs," he said

"Ok, Sirius, what the hell is wrong with you? I know your a happy person but this is ridiculous," Christy said, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Oh, Padfoot didn't tell you?" James asked incredulously. "He moved in with me! He ran away from that er- interesting family of his."

"You _ran_ _away_?" Alice and Lily said at the same time before laughing.

"Yup," he said happily.

Lily finally noticed that one of their number was missing, "Where's Peter?" she asked, looking around as if he were hiding under one of the seats.

"Oh," Potter- _James,_ said, "His mother's sick, he says he has to stay with her for a while and take care of her," he said dubiously. "I don't know..."

The rest of the train ride was spent chatting about various different things, and they were suprised at how fast it seemed to get to the school. By the time they arrived to the castle, Remus had made Lily call James and Sirius by their first names and, to Lily's dismay, James never said nor did anything that he thought would annoy her. She was almost desperate to be angry with him.

Dumbledore made his usual lack of a speech and announced that they had a new caretaker, Argus Filch.

That night Lily went to bed early and fell quickly into a restless sleep, haunted with dreams of Petunia and her father accusing her of murdering him, before quickly moving to her friends, who wouldn't talk to her. Potter wasn't asking her out in this dream, and for some reason, her dream-self cared very deeply about all of this.

* * *

I know. It's a sad excuse for an update, and the most random story to update, but here ya go. Part of this used to be part of another fic I had, but I took it down... Anyway, you know what would make me reaaaaaaaly happpppppy? You see that little "review" button? Press it! Reviewww! hehe, just even say hi. Come one, feed my ego! (or tear it to shreds, flames make me just as happy as positive reviews for some sadistic reason. )


End file.
